My Future
by KimDavenport
Summary: This is what she chose. This is what she made her future out to be. And now, they must all live with the pain of her mistakes. One-shot. (Alternate ending to movie).


**A/N- Hi! I'm Kim, and I usually stick to Lab Rats' side of the Fanfiction world. This is actually my first non-lab rats fic, so I'm excited about that!**  
 **I was watching the premiere of Descendants tonight (which I have been looking forward to for a long time). And this story idea for a one-shot just popped into my head! So I decided to write it out as soon as the movie was over!**  
 **Also, was anyone else a little disappointed by the ending of that movie? I mean with all that drama a build up, I was expecting something a little bit…bigger, I guess. But anyway, it was a still a really, really, REALLY good movie! I liked the first song, "rotten to the core" best. Probably because that theme and the song + costumes of that video seemed to be Disney taking a step out of it's comfort zone and I liked that. Anyway, on to the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Disney's Descendants.**

* * *

 _The Cries_

 _The Aagony._

* * *

"Well, I do believe that this one suits me better then all the others in the land!" Exclaimed Evie, with such conviction that it was impossible not to see her point.

"Oh Evie, don't be so dramatic." Mal shoved down a table that just happened to be very inconveniently in her way.

"Well it does!" pouted Evie. "But—" she pulled another scarf off the rack in such a rough manner that the rest came toppling down—"this one might fit my eyes better."

Mal giggled slightly. "I'm sure you'll look great no matter what you wear." Mal spun around, a smile still hovering on her lips. "Carlos!" She exclaimed suddenly, as the boy came into her sight, lugging a pot of the horrid smelling solution used to cure hides.

"Or what's left of him at least," sighed the boy titled Carlos, setting down the bin and straightening up. "I've lugged so many pots of this vile goo that I think my arms are about to fall off."

"And my nose," commented an older, buffer man coming up behind him.

"Jay!" exclaimed Mal excitedly, jumping in joy to see her old friends again."What a wonderful surprise!"

* * *

 _Pain._

 _Sadness_

* * *

"Not for us." deadpanned Jay.

"Yeah, working out here like common folk SUCKS," emphasized Carlos. "I'd much rather be up in the castle, stuffing my face with biscuits or out committing petty crimes."

An unreadable emotion flashed across Mal's face. It was a strange look on her, and she tried her hardest not reveal it in front of others.

But it was especially hard around her old friends. She couldn't help feeling at least slightly guilty for what had happened to them. Although she really couldn't be put in the position of the blame at all. How was she to know that her mother would turn on them and send their parents out in the cold to live among the commoners?

"Mal!" Evie pranced up beside the still girl. "I think I found the perfect one—oh." The usually very preppy girl fell silent as she saw the pathetic stances of her old partners before her. "Oh Mal, isn't there anything you can do for them?" Evie looked on at the two before her with clear pity written across her face. They, in turn, looked pleadingly at Mal.

Mal sighed, her shoulders hanging dejectedly; a rare pose for the supreme ruler's daughter.

"I'm sorry," she proclaimed with a shake of her shoulders, almost as though shaking herself free from the matter entirely. "I can't do anything; I have no control over my mother's reign."

"But I thought you two were supposed to rule together?"

"Yeah, I mean, don't you have any say at all in how we're treated?"

"Mal, these are your friends we're talking about." Evie's pleading face had joined the ranks of sad eyes; all staring imploringly at their faintest glimmer of hope.

"I'm sorry but I already told you, there's nothing I can do. It's completely out of my hands!" Mal threw her arms and hands to the sky at this last part to emphasize that she really could do nothing.

* * *

 _"Wand me!_

 _"No!"_

 _"Gimmie the wand, gimmie the wand!"_

 _"Leave my friends alone!"_

 _Mal started up a magical chat from her mother's book. She needed to do this. She needed to protect this world for these awful villains._

 _"The strength of evil is good as none, when stands before four hearts as one."_

 _Mal tried to stare back into her mothers' eyes with a green glow, trying desperately to fend off the impending evil which she knew was to dominate this calm happy world if she let her gaze down for one instant._

 _"The strength of evil is good as none when stands before four hearts as one.. The strength of evil is good as none…"_

* * *

Jay, Evie, and Carlos both looked to the ground, as the familiar feeling of helplessness overtook them. For Jay and Carlos, the pain was especially hard. They had just lost their hope of ever getting out of this hellhole of a life.

* * *

 _Desperation_

 _Pain_

* * *

 _But they will recover._ They always did. Why would Mal think any differently? This was, after all, not the first time she had had to let her friends' hopes' sink into the ground. And she was sure to think it would not be the last.

"Is there really nothing you can do?" asked Evie incredulously as they left the sad sight of their former friends behind and continued on their way along the dingy street.

"Yes, I already told you. I have no power here. It's like I'm back on the Isle of The Lost." Mal shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter much though. Seeing as there's nothing I can do, why bother even thinking about it?"

Mal ran a bit ahead and yanked a table covering off a nearby shopkeepers' array. An entirety of goblets, necklaces, and other trinkets feel upon the ground and scattered.

Mal laughed in her lighthearted way. Such a destructive act always had a way of cheering her up.

"Come Evie, let us enjoy the time we have and live while we are free!" Mal motioned to her friend, who, with a goofy smile, dashed after her.

Mal waved the cloth covering in front of her dauntingly, challenging her friend to try to grasp it from her.

"You can't catch me!" exclaimed Mal in a childish voice, continuing walking backwards at a quick pace, laughing the whole time.

Until, as it can be imagined from the fact she was not looking at where she was going, she stumbled into a passing peasant.

The two of them toppled over backwards into a nearby stall, pulling hats and coats off racks and tangling themselves in scarfs and dresses as a nearby cart of chickens clucked indigently.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," claimed Mal quickly before she could stop herself. Then-"Ben?!"

The former to-be prince mundanely untangled himself from the mess of dim fabrics.

"Mal!" he exclaimed when he saw her, a faint bit of shock passing his eyes; the only part of his features that was still visible through the grime and filth that covered his face.

"It's-it's been awhile," said Mal hesitantly.

"It has." answered Benjamin simply.

* * *

 _Filth_

 _Crime_

* * *

Mal tried her best to hide her emotions, but they were spilling forth again across her face; as they often were these days.

She was not, after all, a FULL villain yet. Although the people of Auradon might as well think of her as such.

"So….how are you?"

Mal's question really seemed as the stupidest thing on earth to Ben. Standing here before her, in a crowded, dingy alleyway filled with screams and sobs and moans of unruly folk where a mere week before rich queens and kings had pranced along in full skirts and happy smiles. Where a mere week before the sun had shone bright and full; as now it did not. Where a mere week before he had been a prince; where now he was not. Where a mere week before happiness and prosperity was available and welcomed to all; where now it was not.

How did she think he was?

"How do you think I am?"

The question held an air of exasperation in it. He had been royalty just a few days ago, of course, and old habits do indeed die hard. He was used to speaking his opinions; standing up for what he believed was right and being heard for it.

But this new form of government did not exactly indorse free speech to all.

But Mal supposed she could let his tone to her pass. He was learning, after all. He needed to find his way into the lifestyle of a low-life hood.

Although he had changed greatly since his coordination.

A dull, lifeless look was in his eyes. His face was masked by a curtain of dirt. His cloths could hardly be called such; so torn and ratted they were.

* * *

 _Pain_

 _So much Pain._

* * *

"Well, I just thought I'd—well I just thought I'd ask." Mal's voice sounded the most uncertain it had in days. And she was greatly failing in her attempts to remain an emotionless villain ruler.

"'You just thought you'd ask'?!" Anger was plain in Benjamin's voice. "Oh, thought you'd just ask because you care? Care about the way we feel, about how we're so brutally untreated? Well you sure didn't seem to care when you handed over that magic wand to your villain mother!"

* * *

 _She had to make a choice. She couldn't fight her mother. She was too strong. Too powerful…_

"But I—"

"Save it."

 _"The strength of evil is good as…as…as none…."_

 _Mal's voice was starting to falter._

* * *

Benjamin pushed his way past Mal and continued on, scooping up the box of merchandise he had dropped and walking off into the distance, stumbling a little under the weight. Mal watched as he walked away, his ragged, disheveled cloths clinging around him in a desperate attempt to cover his body. Still, more skin was showing now through the gaps then when they had gone on that perfect date so long ago; when he had been in nothing but his swim trunks.

But it wasn't so long ago.

No, it was just last week.

Oh, why did things have to change for the worse so fast?

* * *

 _Come now, Mal. You know you don't have the strength in you for this. Just give up the wand._

 _The Wand._

 _The Wand._

* * *

Tears began to well up in Mal's eyes. Her emotionless mask was breaking once again, as it so often did. But this time she didn't care. She didn't try to repair it. To be the villainous leader her mother wanted her to be.

* * *

 _Weakness_

 _Misery._

* * *

Mal ran.

Her feet lifted her into the air and she flew onto a second-story porch, once a figure of beauty and now a ratty landing, slightly lopsided from missing boards and stripped of all its former decorations.

Mal ran into the house, once fine, alight in splendor and shows of wealth; now merely a hiding dungeon for thieves and crooks.

She ran down miserable streets, and past desolate parks, long ago poisoned of their natural beauty.

She ran until she found herself at the lovely little lake, with a lovely quay and a beautiful memory.

But now the memory was faded, as was the beauty of the scene.

In the moment that Mal looked upon it before collapsing to the ground she wondered if it had only looked so gorgeous and alight with joy that day because of the company in which she attended it.

For the lake still sparkled a striking emerald and the Romanesque pillars surrounding the little marble platform still held a feeling of enchanting mystery.

But the joy was gone. Gone, gone, _gone_!

* * *

 _Gone with rules, the procedures, the laws. Gone with the times when the villains were locked away. Gone with the goods from the palace. With the jewels from the houses. With the gold from the lands. Evil was now free to demolish and pillage wherever and whatever it pleased. The order of the old Auradon was gone. The decrees and edicts of the happy land were done away with. It was all gone. Every last precious stone and happy face. It would never return._

* * *

Mall wished she could change it. She wished she could replace all the suffering and evil she saw around her with playful good. Oh, why did she have to be so weak? Why couldn't she have stood up against her mother? Why did she have to follow in her footsteps? Become a villain she didn't want to be? Why, why?! Was this the way it was to be? Was there no way to change her fate? Was there no was to save her future?

* * *

 _Mal couldn't do it. She knew she was weak. She had never been able to win against her mother before, why had she thought it would be any different now? With a groan, Mal dropped her gaze and nearly fell to the ground as the weakness spread over her. She had to surrender._

* * *

But she already knew it was not her fate, her future, or even her mother to blame.

It was her.

She had chosen this. She had been too weak to say no. And now she was going to have to live with the decision that she made.

* * *

 _She approached the window at a snail's speed; afraid to look outside. A dark cloud was settling over Auradon. Silently, she fell to her knees._

 _This was her future._

 **A/N- So, what'd ya think about that? Please review because I love hearing what people have to say about my writing! Anyway, farewell for now, comrades! :)**


End file.
